Thursday, January 1, 2009

Optimism

One of the neat things about economists is that in general the profession is really quite confident that over any reasonably long length of time, things will get better. There are very few economists that believe a substantial chunk of the world will be worse off in 2012 (or 2011, or 2019) than it is today.

People in Newfoundland and Labrador should be able to appreciate this more than most. Well, at least those living within the greater capital region. I basically don't know anything about anything that's not reasonably close to St. John's, so it's hard for me to comment. But it is practically impossible not to argue that the capital region has been extremely prosperous.

Okay, I'm not sure what rural Newfoundland will look like in a couple of decades, but I hate to make predictious. Still, I have confidence. So Happy New Year. Don't stare too hard at your year-end portfolio statements.

POSTSCRIPT: I was expecting to be blogging frequently over the last week of 2008, but a host of health issues had moderated the ambition. Hope your holidays weren't ruined as a consequence.